EAST LANSING, MI - Gov. Rick Snyder today called on educators and employers to work together to strengthen Michigan’s economy by better matching up skills with high-demand jobs.

Snyder kicked off the state’s 18th annual Governor’s Education Summit by saying the state that does the best job of lining up education with workforce skill needs will have a strategic advantage over others when it comes to economic development.

“We’ve built a system that doesn’t work anymore, in terms of helping people be successful,” Snyder told conference attendees at the Kellogg Center on the Michigan State University campus. “And so we need to do something about it. When I say ‘we’ I’m talking nationally, as a country.”

Snyder spoke for less than 15 minutes before bringing up a panel of college students to discuss their experiences. A panel of business leaders came up next.

“There’s a skills shortage right now that employers are facing,” said Doug Rothwell of Business Leaders for Michigan.

Rothwell also said that businesses should work to improve the image of the industries that are centered in the state, to help make those available skilled jobs more attractive to students and their families.

The education summit was discussing many of the same themes talked about at last month’s economic summit.

Snyder said the education system often does a good job of “giving people knowledge” – but more needs to be done in terms of making connections early on between potential employers and potential employees. Snyder also says education needs to become more practical and specific to employment needs, saying there’s now a “mismatch” going on.

The evidence: Michigan still has an unemployment rate higher than 8 percent. But there are roughly 60,000 open jobs listed on the state’s mitalent.org website.

“If we fill those 60,000 jobs, we drop our unemployment rate by about one-and-a-half percentage points,” Snyder said. “That’s a lot. So we need to do something different.”

Snyder said the goal is to “connect the two worlds of supply and demand.” By doing that, the Republican governor said, the state could do a better job of keeping its young people in Michigan.

“We all have that as one of our goals,” Snyder said. “Now we have a chance to do something about it ... I am confident we can do this. We can do this better than anybody else.”

Early childhood education, educator effectiveness and several other topics also are on the formal agenda for Monday's summit. It was attended by a wide range of personnel covering early education to higher education, along with business interests and others.